Shared-Use Kitchens

Shared-used commercial kitchens are a licensed and inspected food processing facility that rents out the use of a space and equipment to small-scale value-added food production entrepreneurs, farmers, and caterers. Shared-used commercial kitchens (CK) can save producers and food entrepreneurs from investing in costly equipment to start or run a food business and preserve the season’s harvest to provide additional off-season income. Driven by the increasing demand for locally produced food, CKs could be considered as an opportunity to support regional food systems and help small farms and local ventures be profitable and thus viable.

A free, 166 page guide to starting and managing a shared-use or incubator kitchen. This toolkit provides an overview of emerging kitchen models and highlights opportunities to expand community impact and enhance financial sustainability. Developed by The Food Corridor, in partnership with Fruition Planning & Management and Purdue Extension. This toolkit was made possible by a USDA SARE Research and Education grant.

The broader impact of our project is to help in establishing connections in local communities that would increase farmers’ profitability and sustainability, and help improve the region’s overall quality of life. We want to ensure that the time and money local farmers invest in kitchens will be valuable and lead to increased profitability. It is very important for us that this work will have a great impact to farmers because most of the shared-based kitchens have primarily focused on food entrepreneurs and gourmet businesses rather than agricultural producers. Our project is supported by a North Central SARE Research and Education Grant.

This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under subaward number LNC15-374. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.